Part 18

That is a very good question.


Continuing from where we left off:




Here the game reveals its hidden layers of sophistication. Throughout the game, we've been rampaging through, not reality, but fiction - specifically, the mythology of the late 19th century, a random hodge-podge of all kind of characters & monsters, including many which have long since been forgotten today. We destroy them en masse - not as one of them, but as explicitly someone who is alien to this realm. Exiled to the lands beneath the earth. (By Fu Manchu, actually. We got this message right at the start of the game, as we climbed the stairs up for the first time:



Apologies if I forgot to mention it before!)

But we're not just alien in the place, but also in time. A 'steam-mecha' isn't an authentically Victorian invention - it's "steampunk", faux-Victorian, a modern idea with a historical veneer. In our ascent, we've systemically exterminated all the actual 'historical' mythological figures, leaving only ourself, to represent the modern-day adaption & bowdlerization of those ideas.

Now we face our greatest challenge - Fu Manchu, representing in one person all the most horrible, racist stereotypes common in actual Victorian fiction. He'll be dangerous, and difficult to defeat - not least because of all the remnants of that racism still lingering in modern fiction. But by killing him, we'll be doing the world a great favor - allowing people to enjoy Victorian adventures without having to deal with the bigotry embedded therein.

It's a good thing there's all that context. Otherwise, using a character like Fu Manchu as the final boss & master villain, with the history he has & the connotations those entail, would be kind of racist!


Enough ado. I pop off the detection I have.



Looks like there's a vault below and right. A vault on level 1... well, it's not like there could be anything 'out of depth' at this point.

I begin very cautiously exploring the area near the stairs. Shortly, I discover what I think was the source of those odd 'enemies-being-embedded-in-walls' noises we kept hearing a few floors back!



He's a big lump of hit-points, and one of his attacks can 'shatter', which seems to cause a mini-earthquake & fuck with terrain. Luckily, we have a preposterous amount of AC, and he can't land many blows - he only manages to hit us with 'shatter' once before he falls.



We start wandering (south-west), encountering few enemies, when suddenly -





Hi, Fu!



We begin retreating north-west, outdistancing the other (irrelevant) enemies, but F.M. teleports to the other side of us. We begin engaging him in melee.



Not too damaging, but that amnesia attack is an annoyance. Not only do we lose the map (except for a small area around us), but we also lose IDs on our weapons & armor (except for the Broadsword of Aquilonia, which was *ID*ed) and no longer know how many charges our Tools have. Ahh, old Angband!

(Check out the 'drop' in our AC. We don't 'know' what enchantment bonuses our armor has, so our AC is displayed much lower. Thanks, Angband! Thangband.)

As the fight continues, F.M. begins showing off other tricks.





Uh.

Not only do we have our friend the Prince of Air (who we are totally unable to damage), but two new pals.



Merihim, Prince of Pestilence. (Known in demonology as... the Prince of Pestilence? Huh. Unusually straightforward.)



Su-Dic! We've been killing his Flathead minions for a few floors now.

I blink out...



...to little effect.



Teleport...



And teleport again, this time without immediate pursuit.

I use the rest to *repair* myself.

The rest of the fight occurs in this room. Fu Manchu summons a number of elementals, but they're all very weak at this point - I ignore them. We kill Fu Manchu...



...and then again.



I take a moment to savor my victory, and then step onto the final stairs.



I can't help but laugh. An Aggravated Hurricane (air elemental) tossed me off the staircase & through a wall into the next room.

OK, let's see. Am I feeling lucky?



I am!

Still a lot of enemies in this room, though. Time to simplify things.



(I actually made a backup of my save at this point. I figured the devs almost certainly guaranteed that *destruction* wouldn't destroy the final up-stairs. But...)

Onto the stairs.



Up.

And...



What?

So, uh... if anyone has any ideas what I'm supposed to do to actually win here, I'm all ears.